Long story short, the art for Nualia's sword in Rise of the Runelords reminded us of art for Garvok. So I ended up GMing that it was, and my Rise party carried around an inactive Garvok all campaign. It was a great addition, especially for sympathy with Chellan.
Now we're on Return, and Alaznist is active with Garvok in play!
Even more interesting, the PC who chose to wield Garvok (and keep it close until they could figure out how to destroy it) was voted one of the Sihedron Heroes by the players in our session zero.
I'm interested in what you all would do with this.
In case someone else comes here for advice on this in the future. I'm currently picturing that Garvok's growing power was the draw that
The part I'm still thinking about is what happened next. Did Alaznist
I'm inclined to say the first one, because it changes less of the campaign as written. The PCs can just be paranoid they're about to run into Garvok. And Alaznist would not have been happy having her supposed champion showing up to oppose her. Then it puts the burden on the current party
But I'm really open to ideas from the community.
|
Due to having played through Rise with all the Blades of Conviction Seven Swords of Sin (one per chapter with an extra bit added on), I wanted to add all of them back in Return.
I feel like an opportunity was missed, but I like what they did with the ones they put in the AP.
As for what you're doing in your AP, there are other possibilities. Take it to Runeforge to reforge it into the Blade of Kindness?
Bring it to Alaznist, who commands it to break, or go to someone she designates as her new champion? One who won't try to use it against her?
Personally, I plan to have one of Alaznist's sinspawn carry Garvok; Baraket (which had been reforged as a Blade of Humility) wants to return to Xanderghul and give him a warning he may not want to hear; Sorshen will tell her Sinuous Guisarme that it could learn a thing or two from Arshia, now the Blade of Love; they might even be able to recover Chellan.
Hey thanks for this! The reforging is a good idea. Plus I completely forgot about Alaznist being able to command it to break. How perfect is that if someone shows up to face her with Garvok in hand. I haven't missed the opportunity yet to have Baraket redeemed. Can you tell me more about what you have planned related to reforging Baraket as the Blade of Humility and the 'warning he may not want to hear'?
I could picture a trip to Runeforge after meeting Sorshen in Korvosa where Baraket and Asheia are taken to be reforged before going to the Peacock Temple.
|
|
That might be a good place to put the trip.
My plan was that, since Baraket was already redeemed into the Blade of Humility, its cut-scene was due to the sudden trauma of what happened to its Runelord. Normally, Humble Baraket's Weird is a spray of illusory gore, causing onlookers to possibly faint from all the carnage.
Anyway, in Rise, Baraket, Garvok and the others (once they had started to regain awareness) all insisted that their Runelord was alive and the others were dead. In Return, Humble Baraket won't take control of its wielder, but will insist upon staying with them. It needs to tell its Runelord a terrible truth... that he was wrong about something.
When they meet him in person, Baraket will give him a message through its wielder: that this was not what the Emperor wanted, that the state of Thassilon that gave rise to it and the other Blades of Conviction caused unspeakable harm for generations, that, given the choice, it would gladly have never been forged if it meant the Emperor's Sihedron could have been restored instead, and that there is still time to make amends and show the modern world what Thassilon could be... What Thassilon was supposed to have been!
Xanderghul lets Baraket speak, waits just long enough for it to count as a dramatic pause, then replies with, "Baraket? Break."
Then the sword gives a sob as it shatters into a thousand pieces.
This not only shows that Xanderghul won't listen, it further sets up the possibility that Sorshen would. I'll totally have other Runelords tell the PCs that Sorshen is even worse than they are and has probably enchanted them already, with the big difference being she's the only one who will admit she did something bad AND want to do something to fix it.
Love it. That line is heartbreaking, but in a good way for the characterization of Xanderghul.